Una Cosecha Justa: Project to Reduce Child Labor, Forced Labor, and Other Forms of Labor Exploitation in the Chile Pepper and Tomato Sectors in Mexico

According to reports, including those by the U.S. Department of Labor and the U.S. Department of State, hundreds of people are working in forced labor to produce tomatoes and chile peppers in Mexico. Many of these workers report being recruited by middlemen, called enganchadores, who lie to them about the nature and conditions of the work, wages, hours, and the quality of housing and who may also illegally charge recruitment fees.  

Some of these victims, both men and women, work up to 15 hours per day under threat of dismissal and receive sub-minimum wages or no wages at all.  There are reports of some workers being threatened with physical violence or being physically abused for leaving their jobs.  Housing for workers and their families is often overcrowded and unsanitary with no access to potable water, latrines, or electricity.  Some workers face growing indebtedness to company stores that inflate prices of their goods, forcing workers to purchase provisions on credit and limiting their ability to leave the farms.